Where To Find The Tweets Politicians Don't Want You To See

Although Barack Obama has often referred to his Christian faith, only one-third of Americans identified the U.S. president as a Christian in a recent poll.
Reuters

In an age of rapid-fire social media interactions, we all say things that we wish we could, and sometimes we do, take back. Now, a new tool from the Sunlight Foundation makes that feat even harder for a portion of the population particularly known for putting their foot in their mouth: politicians.

The non-profit organization, dedicated to promoting government transparency, just got a little closer to that goal this week with the unveiling of Politwoops, an enormous collection of tweets deleted by U.S. politicians in the past six months. The project follows the official Twitter accounts of members of Congress, President Barack Obama, the Republican presidential candidates, and a slew of other figures to reveal the typos, thoughtless statements and awkward lines that apparently didn't land well.

Even better, the tool allows users to see the time the tweet was posted and the elapsed time before its removal, a sliver of insight into how long it takes certain officials -- or their staff -- to realize something was completely off the mark.

The site mimics Twitter's layout, automatically updating itself every time it tracks a deleted tweet. More often than not, it's not completely clear just why a tweet was deleted if you're not familiar with the politician. Still, the strangely humanizing tool sometimes provides a look into what politicians really think of certain issues or events -- something that they, apparently, don't want us to have.